Ok, so off to a slow start. I had planned to run on the weekend, but I ended up getting a cold and spent the entire long weekend in bed. So, when I started to feel better I decided to do an easy run on the treadmill at the gym. It's been forever since I last used a treadmill and I guess I forgot how boring it was. I had my music to listen to and the TVs to watch, but still after only about 10 minutes my brain had completely turned off and I started to fatigue. Oh sure, I can run 100 miles in a hilly forest, but 10 minutes on a treadmill nearly killed me. I did manage to get to a whopping 15 minutes before I decided to just walk it off and get changed. Oh, I guess it didn't help that I got a little bit competitive with the guys on each side of me who kept checking out my display and then increasing thier speed. Overall I wasn't happy with the run, but it was certainly an experience:

Lessons learned:

1) Don't race the people around me when I'm not training for a race (this is base training remember)

2) Don't do a tempo run at a high incline as my first training run after a long race.

3) Run outdoors, it's much more stimulating.

I guess I'm going to have to get out my long sleeve shirt, suck it up, and get outside. There, I said it....well, someone had to.

I did a legs workout this morning. I focused mostly on deadlifts and squats. Not having done much training in July and August really hurt my progress on these two lifts, but I'm happy to report that I'm back to doing sets of both deadlifts and squats over 200 lbs. I've been increasing the weight slowly but surely, and I know I can go much higher yet. It's mostly a mental thing really; my body feels strong enough to lift more but I'm wanting to be extra careful with my form so I don't hurt myself.

I did back and biceps today at the gym. When I these muscles, I like to do several sets of each exercise with slightly different grips or postures in each set. For example, I do bent over barbell row with over and underhand grips at various widths. That way I hit the muscle from every possible angle, and can do more and longer sets than if I was doing the same form for each set. Also, I leave the gym with a great pump this way!

Zack wrote:Mark work your traps some and I think you'll have one of the best physiques around here! That's the only place I see you lacking in at least.

Keep up the awesome work! I'll do back and biceps tonight as well.

Thanks Zack. I do shrugs as part of my shoulder workout, but probably haven't mentioned them since, honestly, they aren't my favourite exercise. But I do them anyways. Good luck with the back and biceps work tonight!

Today was fall break day for undergraduates, so the gym was pretty empty. I did a back and biceps workout. I've been doing small angle training (many different grips/positions on each exercise) for about three weeks now. I've seen some big improvements, but it's a very tiring type of workout and I'm starting to feel it. I'm going to keep doing it for one more week, then take a week of relative rest before switching up my routine.